For Pint-Size Swimmers, New Rules Are a Stretch

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Nine-year-old Julio Bettencourt stood next to a fence post at the Hamilton Fish swimming pool on the Lower East Side and looked up, crestfallen. The ring of masking tape marking the 4-foot 1-inch height requirement for swimmers under age 16 was two agonizing inches above his head, shattering the day's plans.

With the city's 57 outdoor public swimming pools opening under rainy skies, poolgoers for the first time had to confront tighter child supervision rules that might force some shorter swimmers to rethink what used to be a guaranteed way to cool off on a summer day for free.

The rule, a response to the drowning death of a 5-year-old at a public pool in Brooklyn last year, requires swimmers under age 16 to stand 8 inches taller than a pool's maximum depth or be accompanied by a parent or guardian at least 18 years old.

Last August, 5-year-old Kinchata Gooden drowned after she was left unattended at the Betsy Head pool in Brownsville. Previously, the Parks Department required all children under 8 years of age to be accompanied by an adult, but there was never a height requirement.

"The idea is a kid shouldn't be in the water unless they can stand up in it or unless somebody's watching them," Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern said yesterday. "A pool is not a place to let your kids run around while you sun yourself."

Height requirements vary from pool to pool because the city's outdoor pools have different depths, most 3 1/2 to 4 feet. Instead of having separate shallow and deep ends, city pools tend to be level, or to be slightly shallower around the edges and slope to a deeper center.

The height requirement will not apply to the city's 10 indoor pools, which are smaller, easier to supervise and tend to slope to greater depths. The requirement also does not apply at the two state-run public swimming pools in New York City -- Riverbank in Manhattan and Roberto Clemente in the Bronx -- where all children age 10 and younger must be accompanied by an adult.

The Parks Department also announced that the city had dispatched increased numbers of New York City police officers and green-uniformed Park Enforcement Patrol officers to patrol the decks of city pools, and that 10 additional surveillance cameras had been installed at pools citywide, bringing the total to 20.

Safety at public pools has been a concern in recent years, ever since a string of sexual assaults known as "whirlpool" attacks began occurring a few years ago. The assaults involved groups of male swimmers who surrounded female swimmers.

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"What we want to do and what Mayor Giuliani wants to do is to make the pools perfectly safe," Mr. Stern said. "The pools should be oases of safety, as well as cool in the summer."

Each pool will have its own mechanism to determine swimmers' heights, such as drawing a line on a wall, putting tape around a fence post or using some other measuring device like a T square, said Parke Spencer, a Parks Department spokesman. "It's like the bumper cars," he said. "If you do not measure up to the line, you will have to go with your parent or guardian."

Yesterday, a nagging gray drizzle postponed the official opening ceremonies for the city's pools, but swimmers came out anyway. Among some, the height test raised anxiety usually reserved for a pop spelling quiz.

"I passed," said Jose Resto, a gleeful 8-year-old who won access to the pool by a hair or two. "Me and him passed," Jose boasted again, pointing at his wet, shivering and similarly pint-size cousin, Eric Velazquez.

Julio Bettencourt had come to Hamilton Fish pool on his own. Denied entry for being two inches too short, he sat down a few feet away and bit on his towel, fighting back tears as 8-year-old Alex Rosa approached the fence post tentatively, friends patting his head.

"You are not going to make it." one warned. "Don't worry, you'll make it," another said. Cheating a little with his bare tiptoes (there are no shoes allowed on the pool deck), Alex made it. So did Julio, eventually, when an older friend came by and agreed to take him in.

Amy Sahimi, 11, did not think her sister Lisa, 7, would be allowed into the pool. "She needs to be with someone," Amy Sahimi said to her cousin, Saydee Torres, 12, as they headed toward the pool entrance. "Just come on," Amy said. They scooted by the attendant, unnoticed.

In this case, a guardian was not far away. David Sahimi, the girls' father, was keeping a watchful eye on the pool through a fence. "I think it's a good idea," Mr. Sahimi said of the height rule. "Probably there are a lot of parents upset because they usually leave their kids with other kids, but then things happen. I wouldn't trust anybody without the supervision of me or my wife."

A version of this article appears in print on July 4, 1996, on Page B00002 of the National edition with the headline: For Pint-Size Swimmers, New Rules Are a Stretch. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe